Initial openDDS install Guide and the goals of this project
12/18/2022
I have created my install guide for openDDS on my Linux Mint 20
development system for LinuxCnc. This file is located in the
Install-Notes folder with the "first.dds.install.txt".
This is my project for using openDDS for use within LinuxCnc
to handle all communications and data movement between LinuxCnc
internal modules, and to provide network wide access to all data
being routed to and from those individual modules using the
openDDS standard.
The final step if successful would be to completely
remove NML and all its associated code after everything
has been rerouted to methods that are available in openDDS.
My initial work is expected to start in the Task and IO modules.
Some commands routed to the IO module are simple on/off types
which makes convering those a bit simpler. Those commands
will be modified to route to and from openDDS. From there
other will be modified and tested.
Each of the modules metioned above has communication channels
that link the modules together for data that needs to move
netween them. Providing communication channels is what openDDS
is designed to do and openDDS can route the data anywhere
it is required both inside and outside of an application.
Drawbacks:
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This involves a great deal of work in analyzing each functional
module of LinuxCnc and fully understand what each module
requires and each communcates with other modules,
such as HAl, IO, Motion and so on.
openDDS does seem to have a drawback due to its size in
comparison to the size of LinuxCnc itself. This drawback may
be completly wiped out by the increase in flexibility it offers.
A second issue may appear for some users of small single board
computers that run LinuxCnc that do not have the resources
required to run openDDS.